Plaquemines fish kill is unrelated to BP oil spill, state says
Plaquemines fish kill is unrelated to BP oil spill, state says
Published: Wednesday, September 15, 2010, 5:46 PM Updated: Wednesday, September 15, 2010, 7:57 PM
Low tide and high temperatures caused low oxygen levels that suffocated huge numbers of fish in Plaquemines Parish, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said Wednesday.
View full sizePlaquemines Parish governmentThe fish kill at Bayou Chaland in Plaquemines Parish was not caused by the BP oil spill in the Gulf, state investigators said Wednesday.
Department biologists found the fish kill in Bayou Chaland had nothing to do with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, Olivia Watkins said.
After the dead fish were found on Friday, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser asked for an investigation, because oil from the BP spill had affected the area.
Watkins said the area is bounded on one side by a rock dam, with a shallow pass to the Gulf of Mexico on the other.
"When the tide is low, it becomes a pool," she said. "We had a low tide and all the fish got trapped" in water less than 2 feet deep.
Hot water holds less oxygen than cold water, and heat speeds metabolisms so plants and animals need more oxygen. The fish suffocated because the water held too little oxygen to keep them alive, Watkins said.
Such fish kills are common in Louisiana's shallow waters in late summer and early fall.
The heat also contributed to low oxygen levels that killed starfish-like creatures called brittle stars which washed up along parts of Barataria Bay earlier last week, Watkins said.
Brittle stars live on the bottom, where oxygen levels drop first, and cannot swim up out of the low-oxygen areas as fish can.
By Janet McConnaughey, Associated Press writer
We saw this happening in larger numbers with increasing frequency and in more waterways over the seven years we were in NC (though never to this extent). I almost wish it was related to the oil spill. We have forgotten, with the days far behind us when even children drank spirits (weak beer and wine) because immigrating people were afraid the water here was as poisonous (polluted, although this story is more about simple mismanagement) as it had been in the land they came from, how precious water is. We dump everything we don't want to deal with responsibly into it and interfere with it's natural processes, and then wonder why it can't support the life properly. It doesn't bother us too much though, it's just a bunch of dead fish. Today.
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